Elon Musk, the SpaceX founder and CEO, is in high hopes that the Starship could possibly begin to land humankind on the moon even before the 2024 target date.
HAWTHORNE, CA - SEPTEMBER 17: SpaceX CEO Elon Musk speaks in front of rocket components at a press conference where he announced the Japanese billionaire chosen by the company to fly around the moon, on September 17, 2018 in Hawthorne, California. If the project is successful Yusaka Maezawa would become the first private citizen to fly around the moon.
SpaceX Moon Lander Contract
The SpaceX exec announced his optimistic views as a Twitter user who goes by the name Everything Artemis asked Musk about the Starship lunar lander project that NASA awarded to his company, besting Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin and other bidders.
Bezos, who founded the e-commerce giant Amazon and the space innovation firm Blue Origin, went on to even challenge the decision of NASA to award the moon contract to the space company of Musk.
However, the United States Government Accountability Office or GAO denied the petition of the billionaire, noting that there weren't any irregularities with the decision of the space agency to give the Lunar Lander contract to SpaceX.
In hindsight, NASA awarded a whopping $2.9 billion worth of agreement to the company that Musk runs in a relatively surprising announcement.
As such, Blue Origin decided to challenge the decision but failed later on.
As per Space, GAO reiterated that SpaceX is the sole winner of the NASA moon lander contract, addressing the protest that other bidders like Dynetics and Blue Origins have been fighting for.
Nevertheless, Bezos further asserted that Musk's company got specialized "treatment" from the space agency of the country, according to FoxBusiness.
The Blue Origin founder also added that the proposal of SpaceX "lacks flight readiness reviews," noting that it will be needing up to 16 Starship launches.
Elon Musk and SpaceX Starship Moon Landing
Musk directly answered what the Blue Origin boss is saying is "extremely unlikely," but he revealed that 16 Starship flights are not a problem, citing that SpaceX has already performed it during the first half of 2021 alone.
Meanwhile, the SpaceX boss replied to a user that highlighted that NASA already paid the space company of Musk a whopping $300 million for the moon landing project.
Everything Artemis further hoped that the SpaceX team is likely to work fast, now that the company has already received the recent major payment.
The curious Twitter user who goes by the username artemis360_moon went on to ask the SpaceX boss himself if Musk personally "expect(s) to have Lunar Starship ready to land humans in 2024 (despite other delays)?"
And the SpaceX exec swiftly shared his personal expectations, after two minutes to be exact, saying that it will be "probably sooner."
Probably sooner
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 15, 2021
So it turns out that Musk is optimistic that humans will begin landing on the moon ahead of the Lunar Starship 2024 timeline, perhaps proving that NASA made the right decision.
Elsewhere, Elon Musk has another endeavor that will start human civilization on Mars by 2050.
Related Article: SpaceX Starship Refills Tank, Not Refuels as It Consists of 78% Liquid Oxygen and 22% Fuel-Elon Musk Reveals
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Written by Teejay Boris
